How Five High-Schoolers Won $9.5K From Hackathons in One Summer

Coding, winning prizes, and proving ourselves

Photo from Unsplash

Authored by Ayaan Haque, Adithya Peruvemba, Viraaj Reddi, Sajiv Shah, and Ishaan Bhandari.

Background

Let’s start with a quick disclaimer: We say $9.5k, but most of the prizes are actually virtual credits from various tech companies. In terms of tangible prizes,(e.g. AirPods), we won about $3k.

But enough about our inflated numbers! Let’s get to the story.

We go to Saratoga High School. As a Bay Area school and top-15 STEM high school nationwide, it’s known for its competitiveness and high academic levels.

This competitiveness has created a highly toxic environment, with students prioritizing college admissions over everything, including mental health and friendship. This intense culture has led to people refusing to work with others, simply because they don’t want their peers to have an advantage in college apps. Our team frankly detests this culture. While we appreciate the competitive spirit, we found it insane that people’s priorities were so skewed. Ayaan, who had previous hackathon experience, suggested we all go as a team and win, simply to show that we could be successful while not feeding into the toxic culture.